The Armenian authorities grossly violated procedures during the parliamentary elections. This was stated by the spokeswoman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Maria Zakharova, reports the TASS agency.
According to the Russian diplomat, the election process was carried out under serious pressure from the ruling party.
''The entire election campaign and the voting process itself took place in an atmosphere of severe repression against opposition parties and movements, their activists and supporters. The Armenian Apostolic Church, traditionally deeply revered in the country, also came under a ''roller“ of persecution. All this constitutes a gross violation by Yerevan of democratic principles and procedures for holding free elections, she noted.
Zakharova stressed that specific political wings in the country were targeted. She also noted that political forces advocating Armenia's membership in the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) and the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) and abandoning the dead-end path to joining the European Union are being subjected to repression.
At the same time, the elections showed that support for Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's Civil Contract party has noticeably decreased, the Russian diplomat noted. According to her, there is a great demand in the country for the development of relations with Russia.
''As for Moscow's future policy in Armenia, we intend to shape our course, taking into account the real steps taken by the Armenian leadership,'' added the spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry.
Despite the criticism and the retreat in the result of the vote, the ruling party managed to retain control over power. After the end of the voting with a voter turnout of 58.97%, the ''Civil Contract' party received 49.82% of the votes. This is less than the number required to independently form a government. However, the party will secure the necessary number of seats in parliament through mandates for national minorities and redistribution of votes from those parties that remained below the threshold for entry. Second place went to the ''Strong Armenia'' bloc of businessman Samvel Karapetyan with 23.28%, while ''Armenia''' of former President Robert Kocharyan came in third with 9.93%. A total of 18 political forces - 16 parties and two blocs - competed in the political race for the National Assembly, which consists of at least 101 deputies with a five-year mandate.
Opposition leaders in Yerevan immediately supported the thesis of large-scale election manipulations. ''Strong Armenia'' representative Aram Vardevanyan earlier noted that numerous violations were registered during the elections. He said that there were cases where several people were registered in an apartment, while the list contained 35. The leader of the bloc, Samvel Karapetyan, also reported mass arrests of opposition supporters. For his part, Ishkhan Sagatelyan, a member of the Armenian Party, also joined in with serious accusations, emphasizing that the authorities used carousel voting, intimidated voters and tried to illegally influence their vote.